Rental car lot owners frequently leave car keys in the car for customer and lot operator convenience. To mitigate theft, some rental car lots utilize secure entry and exit points to ensure cars are not improperly driven off the lot.
However such systems are not fool-proof as rogue individuals may still drive one or more open and accessible cars through obstacles associated with such secure entry and exit points. Further, some rental car lots or agencies maintain vehicles in the open in unsecure lots which results in a higher likelihood of theft where keys are left in unattended vehicles or the vehicles are left unlocked, and minimizes the ability to provide the customer or lot operator the convenience commensurate with leaving the keys in the car, including having the right key associated with the right car, and providing for unattended or self-service lot operation.
Rental car lot owners also fail to do much more to prepare vehicles for customers than cleaning the vehicles and ensuring they are full of fuel.
It would be desirable to provide a vehicle rental transaction system and method which provides a vehicle lot owner with a choice of options for vehicle security and customer convenience.